Seriously Marvel? Look, we're not Quicksilver (although we are devilishly handsome, if we do say so ourselves). How do you expect us to keep up with all these announcements? First the news that Thor was to become a woman, then that Sam Wilson was to replace Steve Rogers in the role of Captain America, and now they've announced that Tony Stark is going to be taking a very different route as a Superior Iron Man. Tapping into the darker part of the ego Tony's possessed...pretty much since day one, the new Iron Man series will see him heading to tech capital San Francisco and unleashing a version of his Extremis technology. Yeah, we don't see that going wrong. Nope. Not at all. Written by Tom Taylor alongside artist Yildray Cinar, Superior Iron Man will launch this November, and somehow be connected to the upcoming Avengers/X-Men crossover Axis. The story will see Tony disseminating Extremis - which upgrades people into sorta cyborg superweapons - through a mobile app in the Bay area. You might be familiar with Extremis from the third Iron Man movie, where it offered people invincibility, possibly immortality...and the unfortunate habit of exploding. Some have speculated that the "Superior" in the title is a hint that this will be a new Tony Stark in the same way that the Superior Spider-Man saw the webhead's nemesis Doctor Octopus taking control of the heroes mind. Apparently, though, this will be OG Tony Stark - just with a different outlook on life. No doubt he'll be butting heads with Daredevil while he's forcing that newfound philosophy on the people of San Francisco, as the Man Without Fear also recently moved out there. Along with this new status quo and Tron-inspired costume, the Superior Iron Man will be fronting an all-new version of Earth's Mightiest Heroes as part of an initiative Marvel are calling Avengers NOW! (following Marvel NOW! and, ahem, All-New Marvel NOW!, which accompanied the launches of other new titles). The new team includes the new Thor and Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Scarlet Witch, members of the Inhumans, Angela, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange - the latter two of whom will be getting their own film adaptations soon, and who Marvel will be pushing to the forefront once again. These are some big big changes for the Marvel Universe, and ones that editor-in-chief Axel Alonso promise will stick, for the time being at least: "Avengers NOW! goes way beyond the Big Three. All the characters in the exclusive image above will play a more prominent role in the Marvel Universe going into 2015." Sort of cool that the comic book Avengers look totally different from how they are on screen - but we'll see if that changes when Age Of Ultron hits cinemas next year...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
